Chương 9
“What evidence remains?”
Vincent looked at the burned window.
“Sophie knows.”
Nora’s eyes narrowed.
“What does she know?”
“She said Elena made three copies.”
“And where are they?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
“Did you pressure her?”
“I asked.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Vincent thought of Sophie in yellow hospital socks, staring at him as if adults had become a series of tests.
“Because her mother told her not to.”
Nora searched his face.
“Where is Sophie now?”
“With Rosa, under police protection.”
“Then we need to move them.”
“You think Marco knows about the copies?”
“He nearly killed Elena after searching her apartment. He burned your records room. If he didn’t find what he wanted, he’ll keep looking.”
Vincent took out his phone.
Nora seized his wrist.
“Don’t call anyone.”
His eyes dropped to her hand.
She released him.
“Every person you call could be compromised,” she said. “You told me that yourself.”
“I did not.”
“You said you had leaks.”
“I said several.”
“That’s worse.”
Tony approached from behind the tape.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Rosa’s place.”
Nora’s face sharpened.
“What about it?”
“One of our guys watching the block saw a city utility van circle twice.”
“Your guys?” Nora said.
Vincent ignored her.
“License?”
“Covered in mud.”
Nora pulled out her phone.
“Address.”
Tony gave it.
She called the officers assigned outside Rosa’s building.
No answer.
She called dispatch.
Her expression hardened.
“One unit checked in ten minutes ago. The other says they never arrived.”
Vincent was already moving toward the sedan.
Nora grabbed the passenger door before Tony could close it.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“That was not a request.”
She got in beside Sophie’s abandoned hospital bracelet, which lay on the seat where it had caught on Vincent’s overcoat.
Tony drove.
Nora called for backup without using sirens. Vincent called no one.
They reached Rosa’s street to find the utility van parked in an alley and one unmarked police car idling at the curb. The driver’s door stood open.
Nora drew her weapon.
Tony stopped half a block away.
“Stay here,” she said.
Vincent opened his door.
“Absolutely not.”
“This is a police operation.”
“This is my employee’s child.”
“That doesn’t give you a badge.”
“It gives me a reason.”
Nora looked at Tony.
“Keep him in the car.”
Tony almost laughed.
“No offense, Detective, but I don’t think that’s within my skill set.”
A gunshot cracked from inside the apartment building.
Nora ran.
Vincent followed.
Tony swore and came after them.
The front hallway smelled of burnt dust. A man in a utility jacket lay near the mailboxes, clutching his shoulder. His pistol had slid beneath the radiator.
Nora kicked it out of reach.
“Police! Don’t move.”
The man groaned.
Upstairs, a door slammed.
Vincent heard Sophie cry out.
He took the steps two at a time despite Nora shouting behind him.
Rosa’s apartment door stood open.
A second man dragged Sophie through the living room by the back of her sweatshirt. Rosa lay beside the couch, conscious but bleeding from the forehead. An officer struggled on the floor with another man in a dark jacket.
Sophie saw Vincent.
The man holding her turned.
His surprise cost him.
Sophie bit his wrist.
He shouted and released her.
She dropped to the floor.
Vincent crossed the room and struck the man once beneath the ear. The blow drove him into the wall. Tony arrived and pulled him down, pinning both arms behind his back.
Nora entered with her weapon raised.
“Hands! Let me see your hands!”
The officer on the floor gained control of his attacker.
Sophie crawled behind an armchair.
Vincent crouched several feet away.
“Sophie.”
She pressed both palms over her ears.
“Sophie, look at me.”
Her eyes found him.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Can you come out?”
She remained where she was.
Nora moved toward Rosa.
The aunt tried to sit up.
“They said they were police,” she whispered. “They had badges.”
Nora looked at the man Tony held.
A metal badge case lay open beside him.
It was convincing from a distance and meaningless up close.
“Where’s the second officer?” Nora asked.
The uniformed officer on the floor gasped, “Basement. They jumped us.”
Nora radioed for medical support.
Vincent kept his attention on Sophie.
“What did they want?” he asked.
She looked toward Rosa.
One of the attackers laughed breathlessly.
“The papers.”
Tony pressed his arm higher.
The laugh stopped.
Nora snapped, “Rizzo, ease up.”
Tony did not.
Vincent said his name once.
Tony released the pressure.
Sophie crawled from behind the chair and walked toward Vincent. Halfway there, she stopped.
“Did you send them?”
The question struck harder than any accusation Marco had made.
“No.”
“They knew you came to the hospital.”
Nora looked toward the captured men.
Vincent said, “Someone told them.”
“Your people?”
“Probably.”
Sophie’s face tightened.
“You said Marco couldn’t follow.”
“I was wrong.”
The room went still around that admission.
Sophie looked down at the yellow hospital socks Rosa had kept on her feet.
One was streaked with dirt.
Vincent did not offer an excuse.
After a moment, Sophie crossed the remaining distance and took his hand.
Her fingers were trembling again.
The police moved Rosa and Sophie to a protected hospital floor under names not entered into the public directory. Nora refused to tell Vincent the room number.
He found it anyway within an hour.
Nora discovered him sitting outside the room with Tony and did not ask how.
“You’re becoming a procedural infection,” she said.
Vincent looked at the coffee in her hand.
“You should eat.”
“You should leave.”
“Did they identify the men?”
“One is a contract thief with arrests in three states. The other drives for a waste company linked to Frank D’Amato’s brother.”
“Will they talk?”
“They’ll ask for lawyers.”
“Everyone talks.”
May you like
“Not in ways courts can always use.”
Vincent looked through the narrow window in the door. Sophie sat on the bed beside Rosa, watching cartoons without sound. Her aunt held an ice pack to her forehead.
